William Harding Named Head of Manager Research for Morningstar Investment Management Division -- CHICAGO, Aug. 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

William Harding Named Head of Manager Research for Morningstar Investment Management Division

CHICAGO, Aug. 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today announced that William Harding, CFA, age 37, has been named head of manager research for the Morningstar Investment Management division. In this new position, Harding will be responsible for promoting best practices in investment manager research and selection. Previously, Harding was director of research for Morningstar Investment Services (MIS), a registered investment advisor within the Morningstar Investment Management division. Harding assumes his new position today reporting to Thomas Idzorek, chief investment officer and research director for the Morningstar Investment Management division.

Peng Chen, president of the Morningstar Investment Management division, said, "Bill is a talented researcher who has played a key role in developing the manager-selection process for MIS. We're pleased to recognize Bill's accomplishments and leverage his knowledge and skill across our entire Morningstar Investment Management division."

Chen added, "One of Morningstar's key growth strategies is to become a global leader in fund-of-funds investment management. We've expanded this practice significantly over the past several years both organically and through acquisitions. More recently, we've made significant strides in bringing these businesses and capabilities together. To that end we've created a global research department to support the research needs of the Morningstar Investment Management division as a whole. Within this department, Bill will help to lead our efforts to unify our manager research methods into best practices that we can deploy in all of our products and services around the world."

Harding joined Morningstar in 1999 as a mutual fund analyst and was named director of research for MIS in 2006. Harding holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Colorado and a master's degree in business administration from Loyola University in Chicago. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

The Morningstar Investment Management division comprises the investment advisory subsidiaries of Morningstar, Inc., which provide investment consulting, retirement advice, and investment management services to institutions and advisors. In addition to its U.S.-based subsidiaries—Morningstar Associates, Morningstar Investment Services, and Ibbotson Associates—the division also includes other global subsidiaries. Morningstar acquired investment consulting firm Ibbotson Associates in 2006, Intech Pty Ltd in Australia in 2009; Old Broad Street Research Ltd. in the UK in 2010; and Seeds in France in 2010. As of June 30, 2011, through these investment advisory subsidiaries, Morningstar Investment Management had approximately $141.5 billion in assets under advisement for investment consulting, $38.4 billion in assets under advisement and management for retirement solutions, and $3.0 billion in assets under management in Morningstar Managed Portfolios. Morningstar Investment Management division has approximately 250 employees in Chicago, London, Melbourne, Paris, Shenzhen, Sydney, Tokyo, and Toronto.

About Morningstar, Inc.

Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offers an extensive line of products and services for individuals, financial advisors, and institutions. Morningstar provides data on approximately 400,000 investment offerings, including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time global market data on more than 5 million equities, indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets. The company has operations in 26 countries.